Whatever happened to understanding?

I started this blog because I wanted to have a place where I could write/ speak freely. A No Judge Zone. I also wanted my readers to have a place to do the same. I want readers of this blog to feel free to criticize, judge, and speak there minds...either about me, my posts, or even in agreeing or disagreeing with what I speak of.
That being said...Someone had to say it, so I'm saying it:

I'm SO fed up with these people! These damn people that walk amongst us.
If your on an airplane and your seated with your child and someone walks in looking for their seat and they realize they have to sit next to you...and more importantly they realize they have to sit next to a baby, they sigh or give this look that screams "Dammit!". Or how about when your trying to cross the street and you have this heavy ass stroller and maybe, like myself, you are a single parent and so you're trying to lift this heavy thing to cross and the damn cars start beeping their horns at you to hurry....even when they see you with a child! Or when you try for at least just 1 hour to gain somewhat of a normal life by going into a restaurant to eat and if your child starts talking (NOT screaming or crying but talking) people around you start to stare at you like they'd wish you'd calm your child down...but you're not in a lounge or a Tapas Bar your in a "Family Restaurant!!!"
What is wrong with these people?
Look. I am a parent. I was never (prior to being a parent) the kind of person that children adored or babysat or even painted the world blue. I do not, baby talk to my child and I still don't paint the world blue or pink for that matter, but I am, non the less a parent. A single parent at that and that's just how it goes and I ADORE my son.
Do you know how difficult it is to be a parent? I can't remember the last time I bathed for as long as I wanted to or I ate food that was still hot or I was able to do whatever I wanted to do. I know that comes with the territory of being a parent (although truth is that comes with the territory of being the main parent, the MOM). But as if life isn't hard enough when you are a first time parent trying to understand the changes occurring within you and around you, or a first time single parent, now us parents get to deal with other people's LACK of understanding. Now we are pushed to the group of "Parents" in which other non parents (not all but a lot)treat us differently, look at us differently, and talk to us differently. I am a parent. I am also still a woman, a sexy woman who still can have a decent conversation or a cocktail at a bar or who could still dance and laugh. I, as well as other parents....mother's mainly, do not need people making our parenting more difficult then what it already is. Please.
So next time you're about to board a plane and you're stuck sitting next to "the baby", try to remember that the woman who's sitting with that baby probably hasn't peed freely since that child was born so cut her/them some slack and try not to sigh or give the look. Or maybe just maybe the next time you choose to date a woman who has a child you can try to understand how difficult things must be for her and if you like her simply be there for her, offer her a set of ears and maybe an occasional "It's gonna be OK" after all there's nothing that a good talk can't fix.
Next time you celebrate Mother's Day really remember what a woman goes through...Don't just say "Happy Mother's Day" with a gift. Say it with some damn understanding.

Where is technology taking us?

The other day I went into the office. I had a BIG task at hand. I had created a marketing strategy and the first promotion was to be sent. The task at hand was to print 1,000 flyers...3 different flyers...1,000 envelopes....1,000 stamps on these envelopes...you get the picture, I'm sure.
I sat in my office with two assistants and stacks of paperwork, stamps, and envelopes. It was to a certain extent quite a bit overwhelming. One of my assistants is 17 years old. When i went to collect her envelopes I realized she had placed the stamp on the left side of each envelope. The crazy thing was that it wasn't done by mistake! She honestly believed that when mailing a letter the stamp goes on the left-hand side of the envelope. Immediately I became curious. How many people within her age range didn't know how to properly mail.....well, mail! So, I left my office and walked over to a group of high school girls and asked them if the could tell me where the stamp, the sender's address, and the receiver's address goes....NON OF THEM KNEW correctly where. They all told me, "Who sends mail anyways when there's email and Internet?" That stop me in my tracks. Most adults know about mail because not only were we taught in school but we pay bills and interact with mail but this younger generation, do they know about mail? ...Aside from email? Everyone seems to be so Internet savvy but no one now-a-days knows how to properly mail?
That reminded me of this situation I had the other day because of texting. I had a small misunderstanding of my own through text and wondered if by having such technological advances are we, in a sense, de-evolving? Through text not only am I not experiencing a person's reactions, facial expressions, etc, I'm also not really exercising my senses and to top that off with all these abbreviations like: ttyl (Talk To You Later) or brb (Be Right Back)etc. our spelling is changing as well. Why does this have my mind going??! Because change in it's self happens gradually and if you take yourself out of the big picture for a sec and really think about it, in changing how we spell and say things we are in essence changing how we as a people communicate with one another. Now that's a BIG deal! How we communicate with each other is how we gather information and eventually how we understand things. Things that are as simple as "Where's the stapler?" to things as complex as how we understand each other.
Is texting now-a-days the new four play? Is Yahoo, Google, and Outlook our new age mailmen? And shouldn't we all know where the hell the stamp goes?!!

Have you ever wondered if there's more then just this?

Have you ever felt like there's more? I mean we wake up, go to work, come home...we date, fall in love, get married, have kids...but is there more? Don't get me wrong, some of the above is fabulous and all, but is that it? Is the purpose of it all to find our individual picket fenced houses and nest in them?
Everyday we become consumed with work, the "to do's", car payments, bills...bills...bills, drinking, TV, the newest Xbox or Halo, and what or who Britney Spears is doing now. These distractions are fed to us and we feed to ourselves to keep us kept but don't you ever want to TURN IT ALL OFF?... And if you attempted to do so what else would there be?
I've read and heard about the lives and customs of those from our past, of Natives and tribes, of Monks, etc and I'm seriously wondering how do we watch and learn about such amazing people and habits and such just wise simplicity,about how these people or those people did such amazing things with their minds/with their lives in general and we change the channel or grab a beer and continue on our merry ignorant ways as if nothing. Under a close watch I think we can seriously admit that at least 40% of what we say or do throughout our day stems from fear and/or ignorance.
Don't you ever wake up to go to work for the millionth time and think to yourself, "DAMN there's gotta be more to life than this!!" So, what is that more and why do we not spend more of our time focused on finding or experiencing it?
A monotonous life, in my opinion, is a sad life to lead and a complacent mind is a devastating waste.
Always ask questions...........Is there more to life then just this?
________________________________________________
Photograph taken by Anita Peppers

What don't you get?

OK. Let me help you out...
She's not a building composed of Legos and she's not an analytical character from The Hand that Rocks the Cradle or even from Sex and the City. Yes she may at times be confused or not know whether to turn right or left...it's OK! Don't freak out, she's simply human. When it all comes down to it if Chris Rock is right in saying that men just want 3 things: >"Feed me, fuck me, and shut the fuck up" then women really want 3 things: Call me/look for me, listen to me, and show some physical affection. On an occasional full moon the previously stated may go one way or another but for the most part that's it. YES! I SAID that's it.

Now..........why is that so hard to understand?